While our universe is defined by the majesty of heavenly bodies such as the sun, 95 percent of it is made up of dark matter. Similarly, the oft-heralded Twitter successes enjoyed by Oreo and Arby’s obscure the fact that the majority of brand efforts in the real-time space are swallowed into the ether.

Just over one-third of the 100 brands comprising Interbrand’s Best Global Brands published at least one Super Bowl-related tweet during this year’s contest, with 11 accounts publishing at least 10 tweets over the course of the game.

Despite the fact that many of these organizations have millions of Twitter followers, more than 30 percent of branded Super Bowl tweets were retweeted (or shared) less than ten times. Three-quarters were retweeted less than 100 times.

That’s staggering. From another angle, the average tweet only motivated approximately 0.01 percentof a brand’s followers to share its big-game message.

Why the lack of traction? For starters, brands that took to Twitter during the Super Bowl chose to compete in one of the noisiest environments imaginable.

According to Twitter, nearly 25 million tweets were published during the game, a figure that doesn’t include the countless retweets, favorites and replies that add to the cacophony. To stand out positively against that backdrop, brands have to be more interesting than a consumer’s friends, celebrities, comedians, athletes, media entities and parody accounts – no small feat.

Neil James is digital strategist at Solve, an independent Minneapolis-based branding and advertising agency. James leads the agency's efforts across the digital marketing landscape. His thought leadership in the areas of information architecture, content management, and social strategy have contributed significantly to the success of clients that include Bentley Motors, Organic Valley, and True Value. James is also a critically-acclaimed guitarist, having released two albums with his heavy metal band.